Geography, Business Studies and Economics

Geography in 2020 was a year packed with excursions, incursions, opportunities and lots of learning. Our Geography students in Years 7 to 12 were offered a range of opportunities to further enhance their learning outside the classroom in a year with lots of change.

The Year 7 mandatory Geography course explored the liveability of Pymble. This involved an excursion within our College as well as exploring the suburb of Pymble. The girls collected data to assess the liveability of the area and understand the suburb in which they go to school! The second topic was ‘Worlds Apart’ and explored different standards of living around the world, along with landscapes, landforms and geomorphic hazards. Learning about tourism, globalisation, water security and hydrological hazards finished off a jam-packed year!

The Year 9 mandatory cohort spent the year studying spatial inequality, shantytowns and coastal management. A highlight of the course was the excursion to the Northern Beaches to further understand coastal management. The cohort was spread out from Mona Vale to Curl Curl. Each class collected a range of data to take their learning from the classroom to the coastal environments they had been studying. Data was recorded regarding coastal processing (erosion), transportation and deposition as well as coastal management and coastal zoning.

Year 10 Geography, Business and Economics (GBE) students were immensely fortunate this year to partner with CSIRO Urban Living Labs. The collaboration gave girls an insight into the developmental project of the new CBD in Western Sydney and allowed them to integrate designing solutions for the areas of water, waste, heat and energy into their curriculum.

Shivani Mehta, Year 11

Geography Coastal Excursion

The Year 10 elective Geography students spent the year studying terrorism, refugees, Australia’s neighbours, the geography of disease and the Urban Living Lab. Year 10 was able to be a part of multiple seminars, video conferences and incursions to continue to keep connected through COVID-19. The Urban Living Lab was a highlight for many students along with the interactive virtual excursions to Sydney Science Park.

The Year 11 Geography cohort spent the year studying biophysical interactions, population and natural resources. Year 11 students were lucky enough to take their learning out of the classroom and have an excursion to Bantry Bay in Term 1. This excursion was related to the first preliminary topic ‘Biophysical Interactions’. The day was spent conducting experiments and bushwalking in a range of locations within Bantry Bay to expand their knowledge on the interaction between spheres. The afternoon was spent exploring water catchments and finding different species of animals – this was a real highlight of the day, some girls who had their eyes peeled were able to spot a few crabs! This interactive excursion enabled the year group to understand the link between classwork and the environment around them.

Emma Sullivan, Captain of Geography

While this year was filled with its various challenges, our Pymble Business Studies and Commerce girls were to be commended for their entrepreneurial creativity in fostering new learning opportunities and adaptability to a dynamic learning environment.

The Pymble Business Club was a new initiative set up this year by Emily Ji and Rachael Kang. The club was open to girls in Years 9 to 11 and they met weekly alongside Mr Fogale and Mrs Wright to engage in discussions about the economy, investments and personal finances. The club was a perfect opportunity for girls to practise investing in the ASX by taking part in Stock Pitch competitions and showcase their business modelling skills in case competitions. As well as this, the Pymble Business Club allowed girls to grow in global awareness as they debated current headlining issues and their economic impact.

As a result of COVID-19 and food handling restrictions, the annual Year 9 Market Day did not go ahead, but nonetheless our girls were passionate and innovative in an alternate learning opportunity. In connection with Kelly Tishler and her opal company Outback Opal Queens, girls worked on small group projects and designed lollipop bouquets, drink coasters and polished opals. Pymble girls demonstrated resilience and positivity in this task, embodying a culture of growing by experience.

The Year 11 Business Studies cohort was treated to an insightful and unique incursion whereby Cris Bosevski, a passionate entrepreneur, spoke about his start-up food truck and catering business, Wheely Gourmet. Girls were provided with booklets centring around the topic of Business Planning and Cris spoke about the process of establishing a new business, marketing and pricing strategies he used, how he maintains quality, as well as the challenges he has faced, particularly COVID-19-based, and how he differentiated his service to overcome them. To finish off the incursion, girls were provided with “the cutting edge culinary experience”, which included gourmet wagyu beef or chicken burgers and chips made fresh from his food truck.

As well as this, the Year 11 GBE Subject Captains hosted a lunchtime information session to give Year 10 girls an opportunity to find out more about Geography, Business and Economics before the subject selection period. This session equipped girls with the knowledge to make an educated decision about which subject they would like to pursue for the next year. Megan Buson, Captain of Business Studies

Year 9 girls with their Outback Opal Queen inspired designs

Participants in the Pymble Business Club Stock Pitch Competition alongside judges Mrs Ann Wright (Economics Teacher) and Mr Peter Fogale (Business Studies Teacher)

2020 culminated in a most successful year for Economics students. The year was filled with inspiring and exciting events and initiatives that provided girls with the opportunities to learn and develop essential skills needed to thrive in the unpredictable world we live in.

On 6 November, our Senior Economics students were fortunate enough to have a Microsoft Zoom meeting, organised by Economics Captain, Elizabeth Gan, with renowned economist Tim Dixon. Tim is the co-author of one of the chief HSC Economics textbooks that our students work from. Students were fascinated to hear about Tim's past experiences which included writing an Economics textbook whilst still at school, topping the state in Economics, speechwriting for past Australian Prime Ministers, and founding the Jo Cox Foundation in the UK. Tim also provided his observations on current trends in the global economy and study tips for HSC success, all of which were gratefully received by our Pymble girls. Tim is currently working in London as the founder of More In Common; an organisation that provides and researches evidence-based initiatives to help build more united, resilient and inclusive societies.

In March, together with hundreds of secondary school students, 20 Pymble Economics students attended a presentation named ‘The Great Repression’ at the International Convention Centre. The presentation was arranged by global investment firm Magellan and led by their co-founder and Chief Investment Officer, Hamish Douglass. Mr Douglass discussed the recent technological trends shaping our economy including the digitisation of media and the emergence of the gig economy. He considered the current state of financial markets, the new normal environment of low interest rates and explained the likely impacts of negative interest rates. At the conclusion of the event, a Q&A session was held with a former Director of the CIA, Michael Morell, during which he recounted his experience as a key advisor to George W Bush during the September 11 attacks. The event was an excellent and fascinating opportunity to educate our Economics students on a wide range of highly topical issues.

Annalise Martin and Nilan Esmaeili, Year 9

In its second year of operation, the Young Entrepreneurs Society (YES) continued to develop students’ must-have skillsets for the 21st century. YES held its second annual Final Pitch Night to celebrate the amazing efforts and achievements that our aspiring entrepreneurs (Years 8 to 12) had made over three terms. Not only was the night awe-inspiring and thoughtprovoking, it was extremely rewarding with valuable insights from the panel judges, Ms Sangeeta Venkatesan, the Chairman of FairVine Super and CEO of Applegrove Capital, and Ms Yuki Thomas, the founder and director of Soulara. Ten projects were showcased on the night. The teams presented exceptionally well with niche innovative ideas and outlined business plans for solving social issues. YES creates an important avenue through which girls can express their creativity, collaboratively work on solving important societal issues and develop innovative concepts ready for pilot testing.

Elizabeth Gan, Captain of Economics